YELLOW FEVER AND MOSQUITOES. 227 



Between the 30tli of June, 1881, and the 2d of December, 1893, eighty-eight 

 persons have been so inoculated. All were white adults, uniting the conditions 

 which justify the assumption that they were susceptible to yellow fever. Only 

 three were women. Tlie chronological distribution of the inoculations was as 

 follows: Seven in 1881, ten in 1883, nine in 1885, three in 1886, twelve in 1887, 

 nine in 1888, seven in 1889, ten in 1890, eight in 1891, three in 1892, and ten in 

 1893. 



The yellow fever patients upon whom the mosquitoes were contaminated 

 were, almost in every instance, well-marked cases of the albuminuric or melano- 

 albuminuric forms, in the second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth day of the disease. 

 In some of the susceptible subjects, the inoculation was repeated when the 

 source of the contamination appeared uncertain. 



Among the eighty-seven who have been under observation, the following re- 

 sults have been recorded : 



Within a term of days, varying between five and twenty-five after the inocu- 

 lation, one presented a mild albuminuric attack, and thirteen only 'acclimation 

 fevers.' 



While Finlay's theory appeared to be plausible and to explain many 

 of the facts relating to the etiology of yellow fever, his experimental 

 inoculations not only failed to give it substantial support, but the nega- 

 tive results, as reported by himself, seemed to be opposed to the view 

 that yellow fever is transmitted by the mosquito. It is true that he 

 reports one case which ^presented a mild albuminuric attack' which we 

 may accept as an attack of yellow fever. But in view of the fact that 

 this case occurred in the city of Havana, where yellow fever is endemic, 

 and of the eighty-six negative results from similar inoculations, the in- 

 ference seemed justified that in this case the disease was contracted in 

 some other way than as a result of the so-called 'mosquito inoculation.' 

 The thirteen cases in which 'only acclimation fevers' occurred 'within a 

 term of days varying between five and twenty-five after the inoculation' 

 appeared to me to have no value as giving support to Finla/s theory; 

 first, because these 'acclimation fevers' could not be identified as mild 

 cases of yellow fever ; second, because the ordinary period of incubation 

 in yellow fever, is less than five days; and, third, because these in- 

 dividuals, having recently arrived in Havana, were liable to attacks of 

 yellow fever, or of 'acclimation fever' as a result of their residence in 

 this city and quite independently of Dr. Finlay's mosquito inoculations. 

 For these reasons Dr. Finlay's experiments failed to convince the med- 

 ical profession generally of the truth of his theory relating to the trans- 

 mission of yellow fever, and this important question remained in doubt 

 and a subject of controversy. One party regarded the disease as per- 

 sonally contagious and supposed it to be communicated directly from 

 the sick to the well, as in the case of other contagious diseases, such as 

 smallpox, scarlet fever, etc. Opposed to this theory was the fact that 

 in innumerable instances non-immune persons had been known to care 

 for yellow fever patients as nurses, or physicians, without contracting the 



